Business
Singaporean wine expert leads two day California wine training seminar

PHUKET: Times when a waiter in a restaurant could get away with just about any wine recommendation – a white for the fish or a random red to go with meat – are luckily over. These days, customers are more and more knowledgeable and demand an ever-growing level of service. Better trained staff can be the key to success, especially in Phuket’s highly competitive environment.
The fact that local food and beverage and hospitality establishments are aware of the connection between better staff training and increased competitiveness could be clearly seen during the recent Intensive California Wine Training Program organized by World Class Wines Co, Ltd and California Wines Co, Ltd in cooperation with WineCraft held at Patong’s Holiday Inn.
The hotel’s conference hall was packed with representatives of such renowned establishments as Trisara, JW Marriott, Outrigger, Avista and others, who attended the two-day training with hopes of expanding their knowledge and gaining appropriate certification.
The course, conducted by international wine specialist, Singapore national Lim Hwee Peng, a Certified Specialist in Wines (CSW), focused on the wines of Napa Valley, California, one of the world’s smallest but most diverse wine growing regions, which in its relatively short, 150-year history, has produced some of the world’s greatest wines. Everything, starting with the region’s wine industry origins, its most influential characters, soil, weather profiles and much more, was covered during the training, accompanied by a number of premium Napa wines to create a perfect match of knowledge
and fun.

“The world of wine is a constantly evolving universe – a never-ending learning journey,” explained Lim Hwee Peng. “It’s a constant process, not of trying to catch up, but of staying ahead of the game. This is why it’s important for wine professionals to get as much certification as possible,” he added.
According to Lim, such training builds confidence and competency, which helps wine and food professionals in their day-to-day jobs, enabling them to answer any question a well-traveled and knowledgeable guest might want to ask.
“It’s not enough to say whether a wine is fruity or not. People know more and more and that’s why courses like this have a future here,” he explained.
And being in Thailand and Southeast Asia in general, this might be more true than anywhere else. On one hand, wine is not a part of the region’s native culture, so more time and effort is needed to propagate it. On the other, the demand is ever growing as is the understating of the wine culture in these parts of the world. Lim, who has had a chance to observe this growth through his years of providing wine knowledge to local hospitality and food professionals, confirms.
“The service I’m providing here is for a niche market, but I do notice growth. Just a few years ago, during such training, I needed a translator to help the audience understand what I was explaining. Not anymore. Now I can crack jokes and everybody understands. I think this shows how it’s all developing.
And it’s very encouraging to see this improvement.”Any conversation about wine culture in Thailand cannot be complete without the mention of outrageous taxes and import duties resulting in excessively high prices of wine in local outlets. But according to Lim, it’s nothing that should deter anybody from the wine business here.
“Many people complain about high duties and tax problems, but if you speak to the locals and let them know that you intend to do business with them, they will tell you that these are just small issues to overcome and it shouldn’t prevent people from doing business here.”
— Maciek Klimowicz
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Business
Governments & old media versus social media – who will win? | VIDEO

We look at the recent changes made by the Australian and Indian governments to except control over the world’s biggest social media platforms. India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social. There is now an open battle between the rise of social media platforms and the governments and ‘old’ media that have been able to maintain a certain level of control over the ‘message’ for the last century. Who will win?
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told. The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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Business
The social media giants in battle with ‘old’ media and world governments | VIDEO

“The rules signal greater willingness by countries around the world to rein in big tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter that the governments fear have become too powerful with little accountability.”
India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social.
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The companies are also being made to publish a compliance report each month with details about how many complaints they’ve received and the action they took.
They’ll also be required to remove ‘some’ types of content including “full or partial nudity,” any “sexual act” or “impersonations including morphed images”
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told.
The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.
Business
Turbulence ahead for Thailand’s aviation industry | VIDEO

When the airlines, in particular, were asking the government to put their hands in their pockets for some relief funding in August last year, it was genuinely thought that international tourists would be coming back for the high season in December and January. At the very least local tourists and expats would head back to the skies over the traditional holiday break. And surely the Chinese would be back for Chinese New Year?
As we know now, none of that happened. A resurge in cases started just south of Bangkok on December 20 last year, just before Christmas, kicking off another round of restrictions, pretty much killing off any possibility of a high season ‘bump’ for the tourist industry. Airlines slashed flights from their schedule, and hotels, which had dusted off their reception desks for the surge of tourists, shut their doors again.
Domestically, the hotel business saw 6 million room nights in the government’s latest stimulus campaign fully redeemed. But the air ticket quota of 2 million seats still has over 1.3 million seats unused. Local tourists mostly skipped flights and opted for destinations within driving distance of their homes.
As for international tourism… well that still seems months or years away, even now.
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